By staff reporter Li Xin

(Caijing.com.cn) Two former Bank of China (SSE:601988) managers and their wives are planning to appeal jail terms ranging from eight to 25 years handed down by a court in the U.S. state of Nevada for defrauding the bank of US$485 million, a lawyer for one of the managers said.

The court sentenced the four May 6 on 15 counts of racketeering, money laundering, international transport of stolen property, and passport and visa fraud. They were indicted of bank fraud by a Las Vegas grand jury last August.

Former Kaiping branch managers Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun were sentenced to 25 and 22 years respectively. Their wives were also given eight-year prison terms.

Xu Chaofan's lawyer, Mitchell Posin, told Caijing of the plan to appeal the sentences.

Yu Zhendong, a third Kaiping branch manager charged in the fraud case, voluntarily returned to China for trial in 2004, where he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Yu testified in the U.S. trial through video recordings.

Xu Chaofan                 Xu Guojun

The four also claim their personal assets are insufficient to make restitution for US$482 million , the lawyers said. According to court records the managers' confiscated property is worth several hundred thousand U.S. dollars.

U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney told Caijing that the U.S. government has returned US$3.6 million worth of seized bank deposits to China's government, and will soon return the remaining US$150,000 cash, some jewelry and real estate to Bank of China.

Full Article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-05-08/110162068.html